Baked Mushrooms and Potatoes ~ from Recipes from Paradise

I got this cookbook
used at a library book sale this past summer
if I remember correctly.
I was reading it the other week,
pouring over it as one says...
So,
I did not even notice until I made this dish and
photographed the book...


that this cookbook was written by a man.
My apologies to the author...
So funny as I was reading it thinking
of a woman telling of the past places
but I was wrong, it is a male chef
and he writes well.
Here's a bit about him.
It's a lovely cookbook;
written given us not only recipes but a sense of place,
of history, of how and why these recipes are made
and seeking to conserve the culinary traditions of the place.
For that reason alone,
it's a beauty of a book; recipes and culture history;
I think that is why I love cookbooks so much
and love getting older ones or unique ones
as it embodies and communicates not just
a person but a culture, a time period, a culinary history.

So I tabbed a few of the recipes and made
the one shown in the picture above,
baked Porcini Mushrooms and Potatoes.

I did not have Porcini but did have cremini,
which he mentions as being an alternative.
The farmer's market table brought us this one,
organic and the seller said the top mushroom pictured
above was the biggest he'd seen.
It was quite large at any rate....

Basil I had.

Garlic.

layered potatoes with oil, garlic cloves, salt and pepper.
Due to fasting and the like,
I made two; one with vegetable oil
and one with extra virgin olive oil.
Many do not need to worry about this and some do
and my family is of the latter.

Slice and washed mushrooms, basil leaves on top.
Lots of oil.

 

Bake it tightly sealed with aluminum foil;
I am thinking that a casserole pot with a lid
may work here.
I failed to get a picture of the baked one with
the real olive oil.
It looked much better, to say the least.
But the flavour was there.
I am hoping to get some Parmesan cheese
to try with this for the weekend.